The news this week is a mixed bag.

Interesting but not relevant unless you are a smoker who likes San Francisco or an employee who is sick of being exploited. Hold on there! Now that I think about it, that’s probably most of us. This week, I think we will start with the least relevant story and work up to a grand crescendo at the end. When’s the last time you found any sea glass?

Maybe you aren’t a sea glass collector. Maybe you don’t even know what sea glass is. No matter, there is less of it these days, a casualty of modern efficiency in the form of plastic bottles and aluminum cans. Not much is delivered in glass these days and most of the rest is recycled so the raw material for sea glass just doesn’t make it to the sea anymore.

San Francisco gets more schizophrenic by the hour. Still known as the place for wild-eyed hippies, stoner parties and anything goes sex, the city gets more weird and puritanical about minor vices like smoking. Indoor smoking has long been prohibited but now the City Fathers want to ban it outside- unless it is pot smoke, of course.

Finally, in the ‘news you can use’ category is this story. It turns out that panhandlers make pretty good money. The fringes aren’t good but the with holding is great. Tell me why you continue working 9 to 5.

Even more interesting when you read the story. It seems that the Police are fine with panhandling so long as you have a permit and insurance. Who know that the cops were on their side? Tell me why again we put up with jobs?

The officer told Speegle without a permit and an insurance policy he could not panhandle and gave him a warning to leave, but 20 minutes later the officer reported again seeing Speegle panhandle in the same spot.

So that’s the story from the Coot’s News Service for July 22. Hang in there until next week.